This gap is even more striking given the GOP leads in the two other categories of RNC v. DNC and House Republicans v. House democrats.

Byron thinks it is because of Schumer, and that is certainly an advantage.

But grassroots disgust with the Gang of 14 in the spring, and now the Alito delay, the Kavanaugh deep freeze, and last week’s meltdown over the Warner Amendment have crippled efforts to rally enthusiasm behind the 2006 Senate races in which the GOP holds an opening edge because of the map.

Majority Leader Frist has to spend his break figuring out how to get the base back into the effort to preserve the majority. He should have matched the House GOP’s defense of victory in Iraq from Friday, and he can still force the Judciary Committee to act in December to vote Kavanaugh to the floor, and the floor to vote on Kavanaugh and Boyle and of course The Patriot Act.

The Senate is in disarray, and articles like this one from the New York Times on the effort by Senators McCain, Graham and Warner to conduct their own foreign policy (as well as their own confirmation policy) explain why.

The Majority Leader’s presidential ambitions are dissolving in the Senate smash-up. He hasn’t got much time to rescue them.